Pemandu lowers income growth to 41pct

Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) said that growth in gross national income (GNI) per capita in US dollars from 2009 to 2012 has been revised down to 41 percent from 49 percent previously.

However, it said that it arose following the adoption of a new accounting method, rather than a deliberate attempt to fudge numbers.

It said the changes will also not affect the unit’s projection that high income status, which is US$15,000 per capita, will be reached by 2018.

"The 41 percent growth is still phenomenal in the space of three years," Pemandu CEO and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala told KiniBiz.

"What is important is that at current growth rates we are on track to achieve developed country status by 2020 if not earlier."

He said that there was no intent by Pemandu to show better figures by deliberately using a low base for 2009.

"When we used the GNI per capita figure for 2009 in 2010, that was the correct figure. We had no way of knowing that the figure would change three years later.

"The final arbiter is whether we achieve high income by 2020 and current projections show we will, whichever figure we use, provided growth continues at current rates.

"But the world is not linear, and if conditions change, you can’t hold us to that."